Monday, November 24, 2014

Marauders Fleet Manual pt 2: STL Traders

Hi all! SeerK here. Well its Monday
the 24th and you know what that means. Tonight
registration begins for Adepticon. At 8 pm. Central time the web
cart opens and you can register for all your favorite events, which
should include our Firestorm Armada tournament The Schaumberg Prime
Offensive!. Please sign up early as we are currently limited to 20
spots. Ok enough shameless promotion for now.

I wanted to continue talking about the
Marauders Fleet manual. In the last installment I went over the
Oroshan. In this installment I wanted to cover a few things in the
STL. I have to say there are some real gems in this fleet manual and
the STL, the Traders specifically, have quite a few of them. So lets
delve into the STL Traders a bit.

At first Glance several of the vessels
do not look all that impressive. You really have to look deeper at
the stat blocks to see the true value of the ships. You also have to
look at them in relation to other fleets as they can be included as
allies in any fleet. It just costs more for Zenian League members.
Terrans can really take advantage though as the STL is natural allies
with the Terran Alliance. I know Dreadbeard swears by one of the STL
vessels.

Our first Entry is the Reformer class
Battle Station. This is the only battle station available in the
Marauders Fleet manual. It is also the poster child as to why I
think Battle Stations should be excluded from tournaments, but I will
cover that in a minute. As Battle Stations go I think this one is
appropriately priced. It is equipped with Primary Turrets, A
Gravitational weapon turret and any direction torpedoes. This is
contrary to how Battle Stations are usually armed as most stations
have weapons in all directions that can fire in all directions at the
same time. I think the Reformer is equipped the way it is, is
because of the fact you can buy its movement up to six inches and it
has a fold space drive. So essentially it is a Dreadnought. The
Gravitational weapon on it is unique in that you can only use it to
push and pull things. The Penitentiary class escort it can take is
also equipped with the same kind of weapon. Given the assault
options you can take this is pretty nice. You can pull ships into
better weapon range bands and pull them in to assault them. The
station also has a 9 wing capacity so you can launch some pretty
heinous bomber attacks.

The reason why I view this as the
poster child for no Battle stations in tournaments is that you don’t
have to pay for a fold space drive and given its ability to move and
dreadnought class weaponry, this allows you to drop it into the midst
of a fleet and really lay the hurt on. The only real balancing
factor is, points wise it is priced like a dreadnought kinda. With
upgrades and wings it can be about 290 points. Now this is
dreadnought cost, but starting dreadnought cost. So yeah cheap
dreadnought in Battle Station clothing.

Our next gem is your usually tier one
choice for the STL traders. The Prospector class carrier. This is a
poor mans carrier. It only has a 5 wing capacity and its stat line
is basically a heavy cruiser possibly battle cruiser. Not awesome.
Now what if I told you its base price is 75 points and comes in
squadrons of 1-2 ships. You can also have Accompaniments. STL
Cruisers or Frigates. So with wings one of these guys with a couple
upgrades is like 110 points. So about 220 for 2 of them. That gives
you 10 wings which are a split berth. Their weaponry is what we like
to call “Knife fight” range, which is kind of ideal. With the
right escorts you can pack a pretty good punch at short range with
Primary weapons and Torpedoes. This is of course after you make a
bombing run with a full 6 wing SRS bomber token. It also gives your
opponent a very target rich environment. Lots of ships can make fire
discipline break down pretty fast. Combining this Tier one choice
with our next tier 2 choice makes for a very Target rich environment.

There is a running joke in our group
that Hawker Frigates and Terran Frigates, mostly Hawker though, Are
not frigates bu actually light cruisers. We had to adjust that
statement to “Heavy Frigates” now as the STL Traders have an
actual light cruiser now. Firestorm Armada does not have a Light
Cruiser class as of yet. When it does the Opportunity class Cruiser
will fall into that category. They have the DR and CR of a Cruiser
but only 3 hull points. They also have the weaponry of a hawker
Frigate. A primary Turret with 3 decent range bands and any arc
torpedoes in 2 range bands. This does not equate to a really nice
ship until you see they cost 40 points come with sector shielding,
giving them a shield in one arc, and they can be taken in squadrons
of five. Yeah you heard right five.

In their ideal range band the
Opportunity Cruiser squadron, with 5 members, puts out 18 dice with
their primary weapons and 18 torpedo dice. Granted this is a limited
range. You have to be farther than 8 inches, but no more than 12
inches away. The typical tactic is to shunt deploy this squadron in
the rear of the enemy fleet. You get one good strike with it before
your opponent starts taking it apart. Granted its kind of a trap as
you cannot take them out in one go easily. Five of them can absorb a
lot of fire and its 5 crew points make it a little difficult to
de-crew. The squadron is a bargain at only 200 points. Its a great
addition to a Terran Alliance fleet. I know many Terran players
complain about the quality of their cruisers. This is a good
alternative to Terran Cruisers especially if you fulfill your tier 2
requirement with the Terran Destroyers, which are probably the best
destroyers in the game.

Well there ya go, my two cents about
the STL traders. I will be touching on the OSO Omnidyne vessels in
the next installment. I know some people have been expecting some
Planetfall coverage as well. It is coming. Our guys are getting
their sets and Evolution Games in Lansing now has a good stock of
Proteus Prime Starter boxes, support helix’s and rule books from
the launch. We are learning the rules and getting a good grasp on
things before we start writing about it. I am waiting for my
Relthoza, which are not released until December 10th. So
in the mean time I am learning the ropes. SO fear not Planetfall
will be covered very soon. Also keep an eye our for a post from
Spellduckwrong. He has been busy. His weapon lab is churning out a
very nice looking Pathogen Fleet. I will leave the Pathogen section
of the Marauder Fleet manual to him.

Followers

BOLS GAMEWIRE

Author Swag

Disclaimer

This web site is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Spartan Games, Privateer Press, or Games Workshop Limited, or any other company mentioned unless otherwise noted. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.